A COUPLE'S GUIDE TO BETTER WEDDING PHOTOS

1) Smile! The camera will be on you all day. The more smiles, the more photos to keep. Smile when walking down the isle, smile during the first look, and keep smiling. It will encourage everyone to smile. After all, it's your wedding day!

2) Pay someone FUN to do your hair and makeup. Do a trial before the day-of.

3) Get ready next to the best looking window in the room. 

4) Eat, drink water, and be healthy.

5) Have fun and relax. Let your coordinator deal with executing all the details. You are simply supposed to have fun and enjoy your loved ones' presence.

6) Take appropriate measures to remove stress from the equation - this means delegating responsibility and managing expectations. Something will not go according to plan but it's best not to let it affect you.

7) First look - consider the pros and cons of having a first look. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO.

8) Unplugged wedding - Ask your guests either in the invites or with signs at the venue to leave the cameras in the car. It will encourage them to be present and not distracted. It also helps us do our job better if we don’t have someone’s iPad in the way of your first kiss. CLICK HERE  FOR MORE INFO.

9) Don’t worry about your dress getting dirty, no one will notice and the dry cleaners works wonders.

10) Be adventurous. Live a little so your photos can live a lot! Bring some good shoes to walk around in. Your wedding shoes will probably only be in a handful of photos (unless you are wearing a short dress) so you might as well have comfortable feet.

11) Go with the flow. Not everything will go as planned but if you put in the time to plan the details and schedules out, hand the rest off to your coordinator so you can enjoy your day.

12) Make time for portraits. Those are the only photos that will be on your wall in 20 years. These are absolutely our favorite photos to shoot because we know how much you will cherish them.

13) The “Golden Hour” actually exists. It is typically right after sunset and that is absolutely the best time for portraits. Please make some time during those hours for some bride and groom portraits. Those are always the best portraits from the day. Because of the way timelines work with afternoon or evening weddings, most people do their bridal party and family portraits during the middle of the day, which is not the best light. We most likely will shoot in the shade. So if you can make time in the evening, right around sunset, for some bridal portraits, you will be forever thankful.

14) Please consider the lighting for the ceremony. Are there windows? Is the sun going to be straight above if it’s an outdoor venue? Will it be hot? Although you may be planning your summer wedding during the winter, try to find out when the sunset will be and what the light will be like during the ceremony. The best situation is if you are both lit evenly, meaning, either you are BOTH in the shade or in the sun.

15) Inquire with your venue on photo restrictions. This will help us prepare prior to your day.

16) Planning a formal send off? Incorporate your cool hot rod, café racer or VW Bus. It makes for a fun “prop”.

17) Assign someone from both sides of the family to assist in rounding up the family and bridal party members during portrait times. It will help with the flow of the timeline.

18) Let us review your timeline. We can help with ideas and planning.

19) Take thirty minutes before the ceremony to refresh. Be apart from the groom so that when you come down the isle, it feels like a century since you last saw him.

20) Be you. No one is better qualified. Consider it a collaboration - any good portrait you have seen was 80% the subject and 20% the photographer. Come with unique, creative, non-cheesy ideas. If you are not relaxed, happy, adventurous or smiling, the photos won’t be either.

21) Place disposable cameras at all the tables so you can get some table shots with guests, as we do not take table shots while people are eating and conversing. We also highly encourage you booking a Photo Booth with us. It is a fantastic and well worth investment to capture all the guests at your wedding.

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We could not be more honored to share a day that has been waited and planned for. Your photographers can be just another person at your wedding or ones who can have a huge impact and influence on the feeling and emotion of your wedding, and most importantly, how you remember it. We will always work to be the latter. We want you to have confidence in knowing that us working together means we will be there to capture every step and moment in your wedding - and that your story will be sincerely told. 

This is our passion and our love and we would be so blessed to capture this day for you.

Warmly,

Kat & Leo